


Slippery Slope

by chibiwriter



Series: Cliché Love Story [2]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Developing Relationship, Lake House Shenanigans, M/M, Modern Thedas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 06:04:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4613958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chibiwriter/pseuds/chibiwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fenris vs The Lake House With Friends (And Boyfriend?). Now with added one-sided crushes and horrible plot twists!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slippery Slope

“This feels like the premise of some shitty B rated horror movie.”

Garrett laughed, loud and surprised, fingers flexing around the steering wheel.

“I’m serious. I can think of at least three off the top of my head. I swear, Hawke, if I get murdered out here, I’m haunting you.”

This caused a series of rather unmasculine giggles to erupt from the other man. Fenris scowled at him, but it was a rather halfhearted attempt. Garrett was the type of person one could rarely truly be incensed at. Annoyed, yes. Oh, yes, most definitely. The man had an affinity for puns that could test the patience of even the most serene saint.

“Hey, if you haunt me, don’t watch me shower! I have to remain pure and innocent for my wedding day!”

Fenris rolled his eyes so hard the effect would be felt for centuries.

“There is nothing pure  _or_ innocent about you, Hawke.”

Garrett snorted, a wide grin on his face as he turned the truck down yet another dirt road with practiced ease. They were headed to a lake house where the whole crew would spend the weekend - courtesy of the Hawkes apparently coming from old money. Well, old money that they’d had to struggle to reclaim after their estranged uncle almost sank the whole trading business. Fenris had been invited to come (puppy-eye begged by Garrett and playfully threatened by Isabela), and as he had nothing better to do he decided it may yet be worth his time.

Since first meeting at the cafe, Garrett had been doing his best to reach out the elf. Fenris had been formally introduced to the wolf pack - and realized his opinion of them was spot on. They were all loud and excitable, good friends with inside jokes and bizarrely fascinating counterculture. But they took to him seamlessly - well,  _most_ of them - and he was soon getting texts at three in the morning with silly antics soon to follow.

For someone as antisocial as he usually was, it was jarring for Fenris to suddenly be exposed to such a rambunctious group. 

Garrett… Well, he helped. They’d gone out a few times - if you could count walking the man’s dog together after they’d happened across one another and then eating dinner a date. Or helping the elf move apartments after an unfortunate incident he still refused to explain. Yet, for all his flirting and innuendo, Garrett had proven to be actually quite the gentleman and not attempted anything beyond the elf’s comfort zone.

It was… nice. To have his borders respected. 

“Hey, what’s with the face?”

The elf snapped out of his musings when a large hand was placed over his on the central armrest. He looked over at the driver, raising a brow when Garrett threaded their fingers together.

“If you’re actually concerned about the horrible cliche we’re driving towards, don’t worry. I’ll protect you from the scary monsters!”

Fenris shook his head and sighed in amusement, a wry smile hiking up one corner of his lips.

“You shouldn’t speak about your friends that way.”

“What are you- Oh! You cheeky thing!”

Garrett’s laughter bounced around in the small cab of the truck, momentarily blocking out the obnoxious country twang blaring from the radio.

Fenris made an indignant noise when the man raised their combined hands to press a kiss on the back of his, amber eyes locking with mossy green ones almost intimately.

“I’m serious, Fenris. I want you to have a good time.”

He grumbled and looked away, ignoring the flush that heated the tips of his ears. 

“Keep your eyes on the road. I can’t ‘have a good time’ if you kill us with a tree.”

The elf could  _feel_ the grin on Garrett’s face, but graciously chose to ignore it. He also deigned to keep their fingers intertwined, heart fluttering when the man subtly ran a thumb against his skin.

Yes, this was nice.

—

“It was a waste to bring you.”

Fenris resisted the urge to growl, hackles rising just from the voice that accompanied the padding footsteps coming up behind him. He’d been contently sitting in his swim trunks and opened shirt on the dock (which admittedly could use some TLC - he was 90% sure it was made of splinters and wishes at this point), minding his own business as the rest of the group floundered in the undoubtedly unsanitary water further out. Garrett had attempted seducing him in for a swim, but was thankfully deterred by Varric and Sebastian taunting him into a watergun fight. Anders had also refused to get into the lake - on the grounds he'd recently had knee surgery - and was sunning in a hammock closer to the house.

Or, at least, he _had_ been.

“Are you speaking from personal prejudice or something else? Oh, I forget. That is the only way you know how to communicate.”

The blond human huffed out a sigh at his snappy comment, frowning down at him. Fenris gave up trying to ignore him by dipping his feet in the lake and tilted his head up to glare at the unwanted intruder.

“I was merely stating a fact. You’re obviously not enjoying yourself.”

Anders shrugged, arms folded over his chest. Despite his height, he was a rather scrawny human - pale and covered in light freckles. Isabela had taken great delight in slathering him (and most of the group) in sunscreen earlier that the afternoon.

“Keep it to yourself.”

It came out like a snap and Fenris looked back down, scowling at the murky water under the dock. Instead of moving off to go bother someone else, Anders took a seat next to the elf, causing him to tense further.

There was a blessed moment of silence between them, both dangling their legs off the dock and pondering. The sun beat down hot rays and the water glittered humidly.

“Look, I don’t really get what Hawke sees in you-”

“As if it weren’t obvious.”

Anders paused to shove his shoulder lightly with a matching scowl.

“Shut it. Anyway, Hawke has weird taste. Suffice to say you’ve become important to him in a time span that borders on reckless. Surely even you can tell that.”

Fenris grunted in agreement, lips thin. It  _had_ crossed his mind.

“Good to know we’re on the same page.”

“I still don’t understand what this has to do with anything.”

“I was getting there!”

Anders paused to clear his throat and Fenris had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Pretentious nerd.

“Hawke is loyal to a fault. And he takes the happiness of those he cares about really seriously. Personally, even.”

Fenris raised a brow, but remained silent. As much as Anders and his preaching got on the elf’s nerves, he figured that the blond might eventually give some insight into the man he was sort-of hanging out with. Casually dating? Going together?

“Anyway, you sitting here on the docks,  _alone_ , scowling at your reflection like it had personally murdered you entire family -  Well, it doesn’t really send the message you’re happy  _or_ having fun.”

Anders paused, shrugging nonchalantly when Fenris clenched his teeth and shot him a glare.

“Are you telling me I should  _put on a show_ of being happy for Hawke’s sake?”

“It couldn’t hurt.”

The elf scowled at the flippant answer.

“Hawke doesn’t like deceit. You know this.”

“Hawke isn’t as perceptive as he likes to think he is.”

Anders laughed, fake and bitter, and Fenris’s scowl deepened. He gave the elf a wry look, smile tugging at his lips in the entirely wrong way - a grimace repainted to look mirthful.

“Just think about it, yeah?”

The blond stood, casting a look out at the rest of the motley crew in the water (who were attempting to play water polo with a sadly deflated volleyball they’d found in the shed) before turning on his heel and making his way down the dock.

“Why do you even care?”

He hadn’t meant for the question to slip out, but it made the blond pause at any rate. Anders turned to look over his shoulder, not at Fenris on the docks, but at the group splashing around and laughing - one booming laugh rising above the others.

The human’s expression was frighteningly fierce from numerous emotions that flickered across it.

“Because it’s impossible for me not to.”

Fenris barely heard it, but his chest twinged in understanding. 

' _Ah, that explains a lot_.'

The two of them turned when they heard tires coming toward the house, a shiny red car pulling into the drive. 

“Look! The twins have arrived!”

“About damn time! Hawke’s kicking our collective asses.”

“It’s the home-field advantage, I’m telling you!”

“Hey! I’m plenty talented - all on my own!”

Anders snorted, shaking his head and continuing on his trek toward the house. Fenris looked back out at the group as they all started toward the shore, an amused smile quirking up on his lips as Garret feigned being weighed down by Merrill and Isabela clinging to his arms.

He stood, using the decrepit railing to support himself. 

Fenris wasn’t entirely sure about the sequence of events that followed. There was a sharp  _crack_ that split the air, everyone swimming toward the dock in slow motion as the world turned sideways and then was blotted out.

There was a blinding blur of bubbles, water, and wood. He felt his head slam against something sharp, dark water filling his mouth and stinging his eyes as he flailed to reset his bearings. Who knew the lake was so deep and dark? There was nothing but disorienting blackness around him, and his limbs didn't seem to want to cooperate with his thoughts. Was his thinking at all? Fuck, his head _hurt_. 

Fenris vaguely heard shouting and splashing, coming closer to him. A large thing - ‘ _A tree trunk? There sure is a lot of wood around here…_ ’ - wrapped around his waist and pulled him somewhere. Upward, maybe?

Next thing he knew, he was above the surface, choking on air and gagging from the lake water in his lungs. Whatever was holding him was wriggling and warm, bobbing to keep them afloat with coarse hair tickling him where they touched.

He clung to the thing that had him in its grasp, gasping for air and trembling with adrenaline. People were splashing and running about, shouts ringing in the air and bouncing around in his head.

“Shit, is he okay?!”

“Bethany, no, stay on the shore! The dock’s falling apart!”

“Where’s Anders?”

“He ran back to the house to get his medkit!”

A hand, gentle yet strong, tilted his head up and he was suddenly looking into twinkling amber eyes. Fenris felt something warm and wet sliding down his face, a stinging, burning sensation emanating from somewhere around his hairline.

The elf opened his mouth, maybe to whine in pain or assure Garrett that he was fine, that everything was  _okay_ , that he didn’t need to have such a concerned expression on his face when looking at him because-

“I can’t swim.”

And then the world went black, someone shouting his name echoing in the darkness that pulled him down.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally uploaded to my Tumblr.  
>  _Grumpy Wumpy sat on a dock_  
>  _Grumpy Wumpy had a great knock_  
>  _All of Hawke's mages and all of Hawke's men_  
>  _Couldn't put Grumpy Wumpy together again_


End file.
